Facing Cancer Recurrence, PTSD & Acknowledging Mental Health

Jim- Thank goodness for spouses, right Jim? Were you not given a bathroom for your use for your prep? Were you aware that you would have to drink Castor Oil prior to your CT scan?
Have your doctors told you that you are ready for Hospice care, or are thinking that staying there in lieu of a hotel? Is there a Ronald McDonald house nearby? Perhaps ask the hospital for recommendations of where you can stay?

I had a really hard time with recurrance with mets to my lungs, andfor the first few months no treatment or bad symptoms. It was not growing much but micro mm growth in lungs. My doctor said we did not have to treat because stable (mostly) After almost two years we tried a drug trial that just hit a plateau so stopped. My recurrence has luckily been slow growing. Don't listen to statistics! just over last weekend my daughter (M.D.) at UCLA got a message about maybe doing the 5FU origional chemo again! He will explain next Tuesday but I have been so anxious I had to use my emergency Xanax. The idea of getting another port implant and losing my hair again is making me feel ill. But some folks online have gotten rid of a recurrence twice so I hope you are lucky!

I hear your distress and understandable. To go through the hurdles you have been through and go again I'd tough!! DO NOT GIVE UP. Do what you can and leave the rest to prayers. Best wishes.

This is Brenda again. Bald heads are nice in the summer at home and a light-weight wig, good one by Paula Young works for me, works for going out. I call it my hat and everyone that knows me says it makes me look younger and those that don't know don't know it is a wig. We are just being fashionable Leighs.

I am an 80 year old female who just went through surgery and radiation for non-invasive DCIS breast cancer of the milk ducts. Does anyone have knowledge of this type of lumpectomy. Does anyone know if the cancer will re-occur quickly again if the margins after surgery are in question. If the margins are in question, has anyone had a re-occurance of cancer again in the same breast, or will the female have years before re-occurance again. O is this a question that has "no answer"? I am just trying to find out how many years of life can be a given to a patient after this type of hormone receptor cancer has been removed. I did not take the prescribed medication "Anastrozole" to reduce the estrogen in the tissues, because at 80 years of age, there are just two many "side effects" problems.

@lillybell80, you will find many discussion about lumpectomy for DCIS in the Breast Cancer Support Group https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/breast-cancer/

Using the search, I found this list of discussions for you to explore:
- DCIS + Lumpectomy https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/breast-cancer/?search=DCIS%20lumpectomy&index=discussions
- recurrence + DCIS https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/breast-cancer/?search=recurrence%20DCIS&index=discussions

Thanks for sharing. Great blog. I am following.

I had a 6 hour non-nerve sparing RARP ten days ago for my Gleason 4+4=8 PC. Mayo Urologist said it was one of his most difficult of the more than 500 he has done because the prostate had grown into the rectum and there was a great deal of inflamation making visualization difficult. This required disection, sutures in rectum, and colorectal Dr. performing endoscopy. Feared cancer spread to rectum but pathology showed clear margins, and no seminal vessel or lymph node (13 right & 8 left) tumors. There was an extraprostatic extension and cancer was upgraded to Gleason 4+5=9 and identified as adenocarcinoma with ductal features and with cribriform pattern 4 present. My right thigh is numb and burns but told this was due to lymph node removal and will likely resolve within a year. Potency is not possible naturally due to non-nerve sparing and contenence is poor now, but I'm doing Kegels and praying. Hope I'm done with this thing, though using the Sloan Kettering MSK nomogram, reoccurance is statistically pretty likely! In the meantime (once I stop peeing on everything), I want to get back to living my life! I'm wondering if those who have had reoccurance following RARP, did your pathology show clear margins?

our oncologists teams are amazing just when we said to ourselves my husband should not endure more chemo, his oncologist had consulted with the g. i. oncologist and found that immunotherapy would be more helpful. Indeed it was for hom. Metastasis stopped and disappeared . now for 2.5 years and now no therapy for 1.5 years. Si good there is progres in cancer treatment. Journaling has helped me as the caregiver to move forward. But I hear you, I did have difficulty with medical teams accepting the fact his bo was not running high. At home it is even liw in double digets bit will go up 30 or more points at the office. I found first that he used a child cuff for a while , then a small again finally. Of course using too large of a cuff makes it lower and making sure the right size cuff was used was a first step. but the technique of getting the bp within a minute or so after setting down in the office showed the high BP. Home health insists on no talking and the patient in a sitting position with legs uncrossed for 5 minutes then the assessment. The question of how have you been doing brings up memory distant as well recent past. All can be reflected in the BP. He was the. worst in his Pcp of 24 years office. so asking the cna to let him relax after getting there has helped so much. Old memories and the issues faced were creating immediate changes and BP meds brought thr general BP down way too low at home. The body remembers so much. CBT therapy helps so much.

Hello, I was diagnosed with cancer in June after a colonoscopy. Still waiting for final treatment plan which is getting more difficult everyday, as I want to get treated because I have bloody bum problems. I had to find a new doctor for my ADHD and depression because my new insurance did not cover the old doctor. Florida is still under Covid telehealth rules for now so finding a doctor who accepted my insurance and new patients was challenging to say the least. Finally got an appointment and the Nurse Practioner I saw does not believe in bupropion with Adderall so she would not prescribe the bupropion or any other antidepressant. I have been on the regiment for probably 20 years and it was chosen specifically because I did not tolerate other drugs, at the very least she should have weaned me off. I find myself getting quite anxious but it may just be the waiting for the treatments. I cannot go through the process of finding another psychiatrist. This sucks.